Ex UN Official Bags 15 Years Imprisonment For Drugging and Raping Women
On Thursday, a Manhattan Federal Court in the United States of America found former UN employee Karim Elkorany guilty and sentenced him to 15 years in jail for drugging and raping unconscious women over the course of two decades while on humanitarian missions in the Middle East.
According to the New York Daily News, Elkorany, 38, sexually raped at least 13 out of 20 women he drugged, many of whom were close acquaintances, while on business travels to Iraq, Egypt, and while back in the United States.
Department of Justice also reported that Between 2002 and or around 2016, ELKORANY drugged and/or sexually abused 18 additional people in addition to Victims 1 and 2.
Nine women who had been abused by Elkorany testified before the sentence was handed down, either in person or over the phone, on how the crimes had upended their lives and left them in ruins.
Nine women spoke at Elkorany’s Manhattan Federal Court sentencing, including journalists, Fulbright scholars, and UN personnel who he had abused.
They acknowledged that Elkorany’s habitual abuse was a known fact, but they nevertheless spoke of feeling haunted by not knowing the specifics of their attacks or the medications he used to put them to sleep.
A reporter known as Victim 1 claimed that in November 2016, while on duty in Kurdistan, Elkorany sexually assaulted her. At the time, Victim 1 was 31 years old and happily married. She compared the traumatic event that followed to cancer and said it destroyed her life.
Her recollections of that evening were “snapshots suspended in darkness,” as she characterized it.
“For the first, I’m in the passenger seat of Elkorany’s UN-marked vehicle. My body is comatose. My head is flopped against the headrest, my arms limp at my sides,” she recalled in details “In the second memory fragment, Elkorany parks the vehicle in the garage of an apartment building — a place I never agreed to visit. The next memories I have are of being sexually assaulted. In the most excruciating one, I am being raped. I feel pain. I want to say no, but I can’t speak. I can’t move. I’m unable to escape.”
In the courtroom, a different victim—who had met Elkorany in Egypt sometime around 2010—turned and addressed her assailant.
“Your story ends here today, Karim Elkorany. You are and forever will be known as a predator and a rapist,” she said further reading from prepared remarks. “The women you victimized are some of the most talented and strongest women I know.”
The victim admitted to Elkorany that losing her memory as a result of the medicines he used to render her unconscious was the most difficult aspect of the abuse.
“There’s still so much I don’t know. Which drugs did you use? And how much? I have scattered memories and flashbacks of your penetrating me, of your standing awkwardly at the side of your bed leering over me. Did you take pictures? Did you think about doing it again?” she emphasized.
Elkorany had admitted confessed to counts of sexual assault and lying to the FBI in May.
Justice Naomi Reice Buchwald, who imposed the harshest penalty she could under the terms of the plea, pointed out that if he had been found guilty in New Jersey or Washington, D.C., where some of the assaults took place, he might have received a life sentence.
“The drugging of victims was totally reckless. Mr. Elkorany made no effort to learn whether the drugs he used on his victims would cause permanent harm,” Buchwald said. “I doubt that he did an analysis of the quantity versus the weight of the victim, and we know from all the letters how clearly they got more of these drugs than was necessary for his purpose, given how out of it they were for a very long period of time.”
Elkorany photographed his unconscious victims and exposed some of them to sexually transmitted illnesses because he didn’t use condoms, according to assistant US attorney Lara Pomerantz, who testified before the judge.
Elkorany’s offenses were branded “monstrous,” according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who also thanked the ladies for coming forward.
“We express deep gratitude to all of the victims for their bravery in coming forward and remain committed to doing all we can to bring perpetrators like Elkorany to justice,” he said.
In 2005, the West Orange, New Jersey, resident started a career in foreign affairs, international aid, and development. From 2013 until 2016, he worked for UNICEF in Iraq. After that, he was given the position of communications specialist.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the group, said it commended the women who came forward and was working to enhance its approach to abuse prevention.
The UN said in a statement: “We salute the courage of the women that came forward to initiate the investigations. We hope that this sentence brings to all his victims a sense that justice has been achieved.”
Elkorany made a brief speech at the hearing in which he expressed his regret to his victims and pledged to improve while incarcerated.
“My actions will follow me for the rest of my life as they should. The rest of my life will itself be filled with regret and remorse,” Elkorany said.
